But it's not my fault!

"He made me do it!" goes a favorite, false phrase in the Blosil household. Agency... do we really always get to choose?

Anger, abuse and other violent acts are commonly justified by our society as slip-ups cause by others' wrongful actions. Our society even goes so far as to assume that homesexuality is for some people inherent, the manifestion of one's actual DNA. People today have been conditioned to believe that human weakness exists due to no fault of our own. Rather, it is present because other people exploit it or because our very genetic makeup commands it.

As a member of the LDS church, I know this is not the case. My church teaches that agency is a gift that will never be taken from us. The great war in heaven was fought over it, with one side fighting to retain it as the other fought for its abolishment. Those born on this earth defended it with all of which they were spiritually capable.

For proof of its staying power, think of a human tragedy. The victims generally ask the question, "Why did this happen to us?" Often the victims are good people who become subject to the consequences of another's destructive decisions. It happened to them because someone made a bad choice.

Despite knowing that these terrible incidences would occur, agency was so important to us that we fought with all of our might to defend it. We cherished the opportunity to come down to this earth and create our own life journey through our own decisions.

For better or worse, agency is here to stay. A crook chose his path and so did Gandhi. Who do you want to be? Only you can decide.